The Doctrine of Salvation | thebereancall.org

The Doctrine of Salvation

September 20, 2008
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Tom:

In this segment of our program, Understanding the Scriptures, we’re going over the gospel, the gospel of salvation.Last week we were dealing with the origins of sin, we were back in Genesis, and I just want to go over some Scriptures for us, Dave.Genesis:1:31:Then God saw everything that he had made and, indeed, it was very good.So the environment, as we mentioned before, what God had prepared for Adam and Eve, was perfect in every way.And then, He had a condition for Adam and Eve.Genesis:2:17:“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it:for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Dave:

Can I interrupt here just for a second, Tom?

Tom:

Sure.

Dave:

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, some people think that must have been some kind of a magical tree, a special tree.No, it’s—let me try and explain.It could have been an apple, an orange, a pear, a peach, I don’t know, anything.It wasn’t the tree that was potent and caused them to die, it was that it was forbidden and it was the sin.It was the act of eating that fruit.

Tom:

It had to do with obedience.

Dave:

Right.

Tom:

So, how did it turn out?Well, Genesis:3:6:So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.So, death entered in, didn’t it?

Dave:

Tom, right there you’ve got the whole thing in a—I mean, it’s so amazing, Genesis:3:1,2,3 just gives it to you in essence.It’s history but this is how it happened and you see, what was it that motivated her?Well, she didn’t have to take self assertion training, I guarantee you that.She trampled on her commitment to Adam, as her husband, to the God who had created her, who had put her in the garden and who had commanded her not to eat of that tree.This is self, self will—well; it’s put like this in the Bible:All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.The same thing that Satan tempted Jesus with in the wilderness:the lust of the flesh.If you’re the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread.The lust of the eye:to give up on a mount, showed him all the kings of the world in a moment of time; all of this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me.The pride of life:to come on the pinnacle of the temple and cast yourself off—jump off and it says, who gives the angels charge over thee, to keep thee and so when the people see the angels, catch you and lower you to the ground and then they will worship you.

Tom:

Let’s go back over these items.She saw that the fruit was good for food:the lust of the flesh.That it was pleasant to the eyes:the lust of the eyes.And the tree that was desirable to make one wise.

Dave:

The pride of life.So, this you see today—you could be like the gods.This is what Satan said.By the way, it’s interesting, in Isaiah 14, Lucifer says:I will be like the Most High.Of course, it’s the impossible dream as we often say.How many “most highs” can you have?Well, you can obviously only have one.So, this was the origin of polytheism.He did away with monotheism, one true God, and now there can be a lot of gods, but he was going to be like the most high.Now he offers Eve—you read it in the King James, I don’t know what other translations say but—to be one of the gods, like the gods.Now, there’s a lot of gods and we can add your name to the list, too.You could be one of them.And, of course, again, this is what we’ve been talking about in the Occult Invasion.The whole idea of psychic power is, Satan can show man that he has an infinite potential then he has proved that he really can be a god, that his promise was true.So, in essence, you see the whole things, the whole modern world today, all of its ambitions are right there.

Tom:

So, we have it in heaven, Isaiah:14:14, we have it, that is, you will be as God, be as the Most High.We have the same offer in the Garden of Eden and then we have it at the end, don’t we?Isn’t that the lie?That we will believe the lie that they are gods?

Dave:

Yes.So, Eve—self was at the heart of it.That’s why Jesus—and one of my favorite writers, Andrew Murray, said; this is where self had its awful birth and now self rules and reigns.And now, we can understand why Jesus then said to his disciples:Except you deny self, take up the Cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciples, and why Paul said:I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live yet not I but Christ lives in me.Paul said that the Cross is not just a place where Christ died but when I believe in him, I accept him as the one who died in my place, I have literally given up life as I would live it, I have died with Christ as well, and now the life that I experience from now on is his resurrection life being lived in me.

Tom:

Ezekiel:18:20:“The soul that sins shall die.”Romans:6:23:“For the wages of sin is death.”And self, as you have been mentioning, Dave, I mean, that’s the vehicle of death and destruction.The idea that we could be gods; who can handle that?

Dave:

It’s a problem between husband and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children, governments, nations, races, selfishness—I want my way!And until I have abdicated the throne of my life—we really did become little gods, you know.We’ve got about 5.8 billion of little gods running around this world, each one trying to rule over his own little empire and what one little god wants to do comes in conflict with what other little gods want to do.That’s our whole problem.So, we’re going to have to give up our claim to godhood to control over our own lives, to being what we want ourselves to be and we’re going to have to give ourselves back to God and let him be God and obey him.But now, you can’t just do that; there’s a penalty that has to be paid for sin.Even thought we want to be reconciled to God, there is a narrow way by which we must come.

Tom:

Yes.Let’s move up to that but just to go back a little bit.We began, it was very good, we had the good news, and then we had the bad news, sin.Sin entered in, separated mankind from God forever, but in Genesis:3:15, now we have the good news being offered.As some have said, this is the first gospel, the first time the gospel is offered.“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed:—”

Dave:

Now the “you” is Satan.

Tom:

Right.—“he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.”

Dave:

The seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head.In other words, would do him in.That’s a deadly blow.But the serpent would bruise the heel.In other words, a nuisance factor or more than that.Trying to get in the way, foul up the works, trying to frustrate the purposes of God, but ultimately could not and then the death blow would be dealt by the—not the woman, as Catholicism teaches—but by the seed of the woman.It’s very clear and yet you know that Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal appeared to Catherine Laboreau in 1830 in Paris.This Mary, now, supposedly, with her heel on the serpent’s head and that’s not the gospel of Jesus Christ.It’s Jesus, the seed of the woman.Of course, I think you have the virgin birth there, too, foretold.The seed of the woman, not coming about through the union of man and woman, but the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent’s head.

Tom:

And this is the good news found in Genesis as we mentioned, Genesis:3:15.

Dave:

And without that, there’s no salvation.

Program Number: 
3808d

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